Greatest Running Backs of All Time - peak skills over 3-5 year stretch (not on longevity)

Originally posted by RishikeshA:
Not many people were old enough to have seen Jim Brown play in the 50's and 60's. Those who did rank him #1.

Ditto.
1) Brown
2) Sweetness

There is no #3, everybody else is tied for 4.

Sanders was a martian with open field cuts jukes balance and explosion.

But unlike 1 and 2 he did not have a heavy power game. which is, after all, football.

Barry Sanders, Eric Dickerson, and Jim Brown. There was absolutely no one else on their teams with any talent, so all the the defenses had to do was focus on fhem....yet they couldn't be stopped.

To not have Frank gore in there is disrespectful

It's disgraceful that OJ has zero votes j/k. Maybe you guys are too young, but he was super great. Fast, strong, tough, elusive. s**tty teams with almost no passing game and the entire defense packing the box keying on OJ and he still ran for 200 yards in 14 games. A guy like Marshall Faulk was one of 5 great options for the Rams so teams couldn't key on Faulk. OJ was the only option for the Bills, everybody knew he would get the ball (also like Barry Sanders). OJ is definitely top 5 all time.
1. Barry
2. Jim Brown
3. AP
4. OJ
5. Walter Payton

Barry sanders couldn't carry Walter Payton's jock

Originally posted by Cutitoff:

Barry sanders couldn't carry Walter Payton's jock

Lol Payton played on stacked teams. Barry had nobody, everyone knew he was it and still couldn't stop him. No question Barry was the best. Imagine him on those Sweetness teams

Originally posted by fan49:

To not have Frank gore in there is disrespectful

Not by the question asked. Gore isn't close to any of them in any 3-5 year span and I absolutely love Gore. Just keeping it real

Originally posted by 49ers808:

Originally posted by Cutitoff:

Barry sanders couldn't carry Walter Payton's jock

Lol Payton played on stacked teams. Barry had nobody, everyone knew he was it and still couldn't stop him. No question Barry was the best. Imagine him on those Sweetness teams

Whaaat? No man. At the end of his career ditka took him to playoffs. But most of his time was like frank on sh*tty teams.

I cannot believe so many posters dont know anything about sweetness. Age, i guess.

1a. Sanders
1b. Brown.

Very Very distant 3rd.

Erryone else.

Edit. Forgot about Sweetness. Strong 3rd.

Originally posted by brodiebluebanaszak:

Originally posted by RishikeshA:

Not many people were old enough to have seen Jim Brown play in the 50's and 60's. Those who did rank him #1.

Ditto.
1) Brown
2) Sweetness

There is no #3, everybody else is tied for 4.

Sanders was a martian with open field cuts jukes balance and explosion.

But unlike 1 and 2 he did not have a heavy power game. which is, after all, football.

Who really cares how you get your yards though? They all count the same on the football field. Whether by finesse, power, or a mixture of both. You can't disqualify him just because he wasn't a goal line back imo.

Brown was great, but look at his competition. Watch videos of Brown and what stands out the most is how much bigger he was than everyone else, including many DL players.

Originally posted by TheGore49er:
Brown was great, but look at his competition. Watch videos of Brown and what stands out the most is how much bigger he was than everyone else, including many DL players.

Good point. He didn't have great moves. It was just that he was bigger and faster than the LBs of that era. He could run over most of them. He dominated that era but the game was a lot different then. The Browns were stacked with run blocking linemen who could open holes so he could dominate the LBs.

Originally posted by diehardniners408:
Who really cares how you get your yards though? They all count the same on the football field. Whether by finesse, power, or a mixture of both. You can't disqualify him just because he wasn't a goal line back imo.

I don't think Payton was even the best Bears RB. Gale Sayers was more explosive and over his short career was better than Payton. Remember this question was about a 3-5 year period not a long career.

Originally posted by 49ers808:
Lol Payton played on stacked teams. Barry had nobody, everyone knew he was it and still couldn't stop him. No question Barry was the best. Imagine him on those Sweetness teams

Payton didn't play on great offensive teams. Until about 1984 the Bears were terrible. Even when they were dominant for a couple of years it was the defense and not the offense that carried them. Nobody ever talks about the Bears 'legendary offense' from the 1985 SB team. It was defense and Buddy Ryan.

I agree with you that sanders was better.

Originally posted by Waterbear:

Based on this criteria I think an underrated candidate would be Jamal Charles. If he didn't have injuries he would have finished his career with the best YPC of all time and technically he still does have the highest YPC of any RB cause Motley was a FB.

f**king Charles. I had a 12 team FF league championship in the bag 8-10 years ago I think and the f**ker proceeds to score 5tds in one game against the s**t Raiders.